I have just spent the prerequisite far-too-long time reformatting
my laptop, re-installing Windows, and re-installing a ton of software. The good news
is that I now have an amazing screen. I guess installing the right video drivers was
a good thing.
Also, I have both Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 Team Suite installed
side-by-side. We’ll be seeing how they play together.
Lastly, I am trying a few new tools instead of the old ones that
I am so used to.
Before the Rebuild |
Now I am Trying |
TextPad
Ahh, my tried and true, trusty Textpad. TextPad, in the years that
I have used you, you have never let me down. You find in files, do regex replacements,
and allow me record macros to bulk process a bunch of files into HTML or something.
I love you, but you are yesterday’s news. Surely there is a more attractive alternative
out ther for me. You should also update your code once in a while.
|
NotePad2
Regular expressions, syntax highlighting, other stuff. Is it better
than TextPad? I dunno, but it is newer. I will give it a try for awhile. I am way
to old to care about the VI / Emacs debate, so this is really a low impact one.
|
BlogJet
BlogJet is a great application. I will never go back to solely managing
my blog through the HTML editor in a web page, but BlogJet has some serious flaws,
too. There is no table support without writing the HTML, the editor is kinda hokey
and non-standard.I could go on. That said, it works and works well. I just want something
more polished.
|
Anconia RocketPost
I am actually authoring this post with RocketPost.I haven’t bought
it yet, but I might. Notice anything different in this post? That’s right, a table.
Hey, BlogJet, get a clue.
I have already had an email exchange with the author behind this
software and he seems to be responsive to questions.
|
NewsGator
I have been using this for several years now and I am addicted to
getting my RSS feeds in Outlook. I am not addicted to this software not receiving
steady improvements and updates due to the company’s recent acquisition of Feed Demon.
I hope to see better action from NewsGator in the future.
|
Attensa
This is still an Outlook RSS aggregator. It is just that Attensa
doesn’t make me buy into the whole “centralized OPML” model. Frankly, I just don’t
want to read my blog feeds on a web page. Getting them in Outlook is just fine, thank
you. Attensa has better support for podcasting and it is free. Oh, and it is free.
|
Araxis Merge
This is a heck of a lot better tool that WinDiff or some other unusable
applications. I have used this for a couple of years and have no complaints. I just
want to see what else there is out there.
|
Beyond Compare
I installed it, but haven’t had much use for it yet. So far, so good.
|